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| Derbyshire Dales
For photographs scroll down to bottom
November 2010
with Paul Heppleston and Tina Barton
One thinks of November as potentially being cold, but our days rigjht at the start of the month wer anything but. Yes, a bit of rain, but the clarity of the air and oh, the wonderful autumn colours made up for any dampness around.
A log fire each evening (and they were longer, darker evenings than any other Journeying or Pilgrim Adventure trip has ever experienced) was a fitting accompaniment to a range of evening 'activities' - chatting, music, song, drama, reflection, worship, laughter and a real sharing of our deepest selves.
We were just a small group (seven maximum) and so the intimacy that was possible proved a great blessing.
Our days started fairly promptly as we didn't want to get caught out later by the descending darkness at 4.30 or so. Our two adjoining barn conversions allowed each of us plenty of personal space and the dining area in the old hayloft, where we met for all meals and all our 'together' times) was a lovely warming and olde environment, especially after a day out in the hills and dales (you can't have one without the other).
Our walking was gentle and relaxing; a day was spend in Dovedale, wandering in and out of the dale to places where the tourist horde in summer hardly ever go; evenin November we were not alone, so to find 'unknown' dales was tremendous and gave us the feeling of real exploration.
Small villages like Alstonefield, Parwich, Milldale, Monyash and Brassington came our way (or we went their way) and we walked amongst sheep and squeeze-stiles, rivers and streams. Quite a bit of time was in Staffordshire, where there is a forgotten area of the 'Staffordshire Moorlands'. Here lie The Roaches, a superb range of grit-stone rock hills where walking is easy and the views are stunning (they featured on BBC Countryfile on 28th November 2010).
A hidden gem of a Cistercian Abbey was also part of our discovery - Croxden Abbey near Rocester - a wonderful place redolent with history; and if one could close your eyes and imagine....yes, you could see how huge was the monastery and abbey church there in earlier centuries before the Dissolution - an incredible place of stark beauty where hardly anybody goes - that's exactly the kind of place for Journeying!
Some of us tallied up the dales we walked in or touched...Dovedale, Milldale, Halldale, Brassington Dale, Lathkill Dale, Beresford Dale, Wolfscote Dale, Biggin Dale, Cales Dale, Alsop Dale.... and (classic talk) 'there's many more where that came from!'
We were fortunate (nay, blessed) by weather, by scenery, by our 'home' - but most of all by companionship.
Paul Heppleston
 Alsop Dale; our home centre right Alsop Dale colours
 Dove Dale
 Dove Dale perch
 The River Dove in Beresford Dale
 On The Roaches (Hen Cloud in background)
 Roaches scenery - rocks and trees
 descending into (wet) Cales Dale
 Mossy wall nr Tissington
 Croxden Abbey
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